What Is a Chat Room? From Dial-Up Days to Today
Join freeA chat room is a shared online space where several people talk by typing, in real time. Early ones ran on a university network in the 1970s, dial-up brought them into homes in the 1990s, and they're still here.
What is a chat room, and how does it work?
Imagine a café table that anyone can join, except everyone is typing instead of talking, and they could be on a sofa at the other end of the country.
That's a chat room: a space on a website or in an app where a group of people hold one conversation together, live. You type a line and send it, and a moment later it appears for everyone in the room. Anyone can answer. Two or three threads often run at once, and the talk can wander from the weather to someone's disastrous haircut in a few minutes.
How a chat room works
Open a room and you'll see the conversation scrolling up the screen, newest lines at the bottom, each one marked with the name of whoever sent it. You can read along for a while, greet the room, or reply to a comment that caught your eye. Nobody has to take turns, which is half the fun and, on a busy night, half the chaos.
A well-run room has someone keeping order, too. Admins or moderators watch the conversation, clear out spam and step in when a person ignores the rules, so the room stays somewhere people want to be.
Chat room, private message or group chat: what's the difference?
People use the three names loosely, but each one works differently and suits a different mood.
A chat room
One open conversation that everyone in the room can read and join. It's where you meet new people, and where a chinwag can take any turn.
A private message
A conversation for two that nobody else can see. It's the natural next step when you hit it off with someone in a room.
A group chat
A private conversation for a chosen crowd. Only the people in it can read along, so it suits a group who already get on.
When did chat rooms start? A short history
Pull up a chair for the history of chat rooms, from a handful of people typing on a university network to the rooms you can open on a phone today.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1973 | One of the first chat programs runs on a US university's teaching network |
| 1980 | A dial-up online service opens a chat modelled on CB radio, and subscribers pick handles |
| 1982 | The sideways smiley :-) is proposed on a university message board |
| 1988 | Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is written in Finland, with channels whose names start with # |
| The 1990s | Dial-up internet and the big web portals bring chat rooms into ordinary homes |
| The 2000s | Instant messaging, social networks and then smartphones move most chatting into private and group threads |
| The early 2010s | Many of the big portals' public chat rooms have closed |
| Today | Chat rooms carry on inside apps, online communities and members' sites such as Natter |
1973: typing to each other, live
In 1973, on a computer network built for teaching at a US university, one of the first chat programs let a handful of people type to each other in real time. Each person's words appeared on the others' screens as they typed, letter by letter, so there was no polishing a sentence before anyone saw it. Everyone watched it take shape, typos and all.
1980: handles, borrowed from CB radio
In 1980 a dial-up online service opened a chat feature to its subscribers, modelled on CB radio. Just as CB radio users did, people chose a "handle" to go by, so you could call yourself something like Night Owl for the evening and leave your real name at the door.
1982: a smiley to mark a joke
Typed words lose your tone of voice, so a joke can easily read as a dig. In 1982, someone on a university message board proposed the sideways smiley :-) as a way to mark a joke. Tilt your head to the left and the face appears.
1988: IRC and the # channel
Internet Relay Chat, better known as IRC, was written in Finland in 1988. Its rooms were called channels, and their names start with #, like a little sign on the door.
The 1990s: screen names and a/s/l
Through the 1990s, dial-up internet and the big web portals brought chat rooms into ordinary homes. You picked a screen name, chose a room by topic or by place, and joined whatever conversation was on the go. And there was the famous question, "a/s/l?", short for age, sex, location: a quick way of asking who on earth you were talking to.
The 2000s and after: chat goes private
In the 2000s, instant messaging, social networks and then smartphones moved most chatting into private and group threads. People didn't stop chatting; the conversation simply moved somewhere more personal.
Meanwhile the big public rooms were struggling. Spam bots, safety worries and the cost of moderation wore them down, and by the early 2010s many of the big portals had closed their public chat rooms.
What did old chat rooms get right, and what went wrong?
Nostalgia for 90s chat rooms is allowed, and so is honesty. The old rooms gave people a lot, and they had real problems too.
What they got right
- The fun. You could drop into a room, find a conversation already in full swing and be part of it within a minute.
- The community. A good room felt like a local, with familiar names, running jokes and someone who'd say hello when you came in.
- The anonymity. Behind a screen name, shy people could speak up and say what they really thought.
- Room for everyone. With rooms by topic and by place, you could find people who loved what you loved, or lived near you.
What went wrong
- Spam bots. Automated accounts could flood a room with junk and drown out the real conversation.
- Bad behaviour. Anonymity cut both ways. With only a made-up name at stake, some people were rude or worse, and could come back under a new one.
- Safety worries. You couldn't always tell who was really behind a screen name, and people were right to be careful.
- The cost of keeping order. Moderating big public rooms took time and money, and that cost helped close many of them.
So the question for any chat room today is how to keep the first list without the second.
Do chat rooms still exist?
Yes. They moved house rather than closing for good.
You'll find chat rooms inside apps and online communities, and on sites like Natter. On Natter, everyone signs up before they chat, and every member is 18+. Admins moderate the rooms, and the rooms sit alongside private messages and private group chats for up to 50 people, which members on VIP and VIP+ can create. So when a chat in a room goes well, it can carry on somewhere quieter.
Signing up is how Natter works on that second list. Behaviour monitoring looks out for bots and scammers, admins can act on anyone who breaks the community rules, and blocking someone is instant. There's no strolling in as a guest, and our page on chat rooms with no registration explains why. If you're weighing a members' room against the instant, anonymous kind, Natter vs random chat sets out the differences fairly.
Which rooms you can open depends on your plan, and our guide to Natter's chat rooms explains how they work. A bit of nostalgia makes a decent icebreaker, too. You might try something like this:
- Feels like a proper old-school chat room in here tonight.
- Ha, all we need now is someone asking a/s/l.
- Please don't. Tell us what you're watching instead.
What's stayed the same, and what's changed?
Still going strong
Old chat slang is alive and well. The shorthand people typed to keep up with a fast-moving room still turns up in messages every day, and if a few abbreviations leave you scratching your head, our chat slang guide decodes the common ones. The sideways smiley is still doing its job, too.
So is the handle. On Natter it's called a username, and it works the same way: people know you by a name you chose, while your real name and email address stay private.
And some manners never date. Say hello, read a few lines before you join in, and take a no gracefully. Our chat etiquette guide covers the rest.
What's changed
Where we chat, mostly. The computer at home and the dial-up connection have given way to the phone in your pocket, and most conversations now happen in private messages and group chats rather than one big public room. If you're wondering how Natter fits next to the group chats you already have, see Natter vs group chat apps.
Finding your people works differently as well. To meet someone who shares your interests or lives nearby, Natter has search and daily match suggestions, which weigh things like interests and distance, as well as the rooms.
And when someone spoils the mood, you have options. On Natter you can block anyone instantly and report them without leaving the site, and a warning pops up if anyone tries to take the conversation off to a different messaging app. Our chat safety guide has the rest.
Questions about chat rooms, old and new
What is a chat room?
A chat room is a shared space online where a group of people talk in real time by typing, and every message appears for everyone in the room. Unlike a private message or a group chat, it's open to everyone allowed in, which makes it a natural place to meet new people.
When did chat rooms start?
Live typed chat goes back at least to 1973, when an early chat program let a handful of people on a US university's teaching network talk in real time. A dial-up service opened a chat modelled on CB radio in 1980, IRC followed in 1988, and the 1990s brought chat rooms into ordinary homes.
What does a/s/l mean?
A/s/l stands for age, sex, location, and it was the famous question of 1990s chat rooms. Today it works better as a joke than a real question, because your location isn't something to hand to a person you've only just met.
Why did so many old chat rooms close?
Spam bots, safety worries and the cost of moderation wore the big public rooms down, while instant messaging, social networks and smartphones drew most chatting into private and group threads. By the early 2010s, many of the big portals had shut their public chat rooms.
Do chat rooms still exist?
Yes. They carry on inside apps and online communities, and on sites like Natter, where every member has signed up, admins moderate the rooms, and a good conversation can move into private messages or a private group chat.
What's the difference between a chat room and a group chat?
A chat room is open, so anyone allowed in can read along and join the conversation. A group chat is private to the people who've been added, so it's handier for people who already know each other. Natter has both: live rooms, and private group chats for up to 50 people that members on VIP and VIP+ can create.
The Chat Room Lives On: Come and Say Hello
Choose a username, step into the rooms and type your first hello. No a/s/l required.
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